The present invention relates to systems, methods, and computer program products for sharing knowledge and experience through a computing system.
Various systems have emerged for motivating people to share knowledge in public forums or through websites. One inhibitor to successful knowledge sharing is the lack of knowledge about the participants on both sides of the interaction (knowledge-seeker/requester and knowledge-provider/expert). For example, in the context of a live chat, a requester may not want to initiate a chat request because he or she may not feel comfortable requesting help from strangers. Even if the person does initiate a chat, the chat may not be successful due to a lack of response from the expert. This lack of success can cause the requester to be even more hesitant to request help from an unknown expert in the future. The process can become a vicious cycle with less and less chance that a potential requester will actually initiate a productive chat.